EVER SINCE FIDEL CASTRO ABRUPTLY ENDED a press conference during Mikhail Gorbachev’s visit to Cuba last year, when reporters questioned his guest about Cuban resistance to perestroika and glasnost, right-wing Cuban-Americans have sought to take advantage of tensions between Havana and Moscow. Some have even traveled to Moscow to lobby members of the Supreme Soviet to intro- duce resolutions condemning Fidel Castro. During last spring’s U.S./Soviet summit, Cuban-Ameri- can exiles tried to add a new episode to this drama. Jorge Mis Canosa announced to the press that the Soviet delegation would be meeting with him because the leadership of the Soviet Union did not want to be caught off guard not knowing the next leaders of Cuba as they had been in Eastern Europe. In fact, Mis Canosa was the only Cuban-American non- academic to appear with members of the Soviet delegation on the program of a conference at the University of Miami’s Center for Eastern European and Soviet Studies. And Mais Canosa’s Cuban-American National Foundation sponsored a May 24 Washington press conference featuring director Jackie Tillman and Gorbachev advisor Andrei Kortunov. But MAs Canosa’s efforts to position himself as the Soviet-approved successor to Fidel were ruined when Alicia Torres, executive director of the liberal Cuban-American Committee managed to enter-despite the physical efforts of a Foundation staff person-and ask Mr. Kortunov if he knew of Mds Canosa’s claim to the press. An embarrassed Soviet Embassy quickly telegrammed members of their delegation to distance themselves from the Foundation and to meet with representatives of other groups in the Cuban-American community. MAT
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